Would you buy a 3D/2N Puerto Princesa trip for 2pax with airfare, hotel accommodation and island hopping tour for P9,900.00? I did. I joined the bandwagon and clicked the "buy this deal" button in the MetroDeal website. Hey! That's just P4,950/pax for an all-in package! But did we really save P6,100.00 as advertised on their site? More after the jump.

The Prep: Ensemble E-Travel Gives More Headaches Than A DIY Tour Does

I bought this deal on June 18, 2011 and I planned to use it on my birthday on November - so that's six long months of waiting. That gave me a lot of time to communicate with MetroDeal and Ensemble E-Travel. The thing about these trips is that the customers who bought the deals need to directly contact the travel agency. I read a lot of bad things about Ensemble like lack of communication, changes in travel details one day before the trip, fake telephone numbers, etc. Basically, Ensemble takes all the customers they can get even if they can't accommodate everyone of them. Ensemble deserves a whole blog post dedicated to them for being such a big jerk. After a series of curse-abundant emails, Dennis from Ensemble finally sent me the travel dockets for our Puerto Princesa Trip.

PHP 6100 Savings?

No. Metrodeal or Ensemble may have [intentionally] overestimated the cost of this 3D/2N trip to P16,000. But upon checking the websites of the airline, hotel and tour operator, the total package cost for 2 persons should only be P12,313.60. So the savings should just be around P2,413.60, a lot lower than MetroDeal's estimated savings of P6,100.00. The thing is, I only checked this now and we used the MetroDeal voucher last December 2011. Okay, my bad. Buying the deal was admittedly an impulsive decision. But on the other hand, a P2,500 savings wasn't that bad. Everything has been arranged for us by the travel agency, although we had to go through a series of unfortunate events.

Our Customized 4D/3N Puerto Princesa Itinerary W/ Expense Breakdown

Based on our trip last Dec 1-4, 2011. We added another day to the 3D/2N Puerto Princesa deal. The PP Underground River wasn't included in the original itinerary. Uhm, hello? Nobody goes to Puerto Princesa without seeing the Underground River! The town tour wasn't included in the itinerary as well. See what Ensemble did there? =/ They took all the vital factors from the deal so customers would be forced to pay an additional amount for the add-ons. Clever move by Ensemble, an oversight on my part. Note to self: must resist buying all the tempting online deals without checking the details first.

Here is our 4D/3N itinerary to Puerto Princesa. You can see the comparison of our personal expenses with a package tour versus the regular expenses without the MetroDeal/Ensemble package. Difference is just ~P1,800/pax.

Notes: 1. Ensemble booked us lite fare flights only so we had to pay Cebu Pacific an additional P366 each for 15k prepaid baggage RT. 2. Food expenses may vary depending on where you will eat. Our hotel was a little bit far from the town proper so by the time we arrived there, all restaurants were already fully booked. I heard about Kalui and Kinabuch but we weren't able to try their food, unfortunately :( 3. The tour operator for our trip was N'Joy Travel and Conventions. I think all rates for the tours are pretty much the same for all operators/agencies. For example, town tour is P600/pax, Honda Bay tour is P1,100/pax and the Underground River tour is P1,500/pax. Tours include everything so you'll just have to wait for your van and let your tour guide do the talking. 4. I spent a looot on pasalubong, around P1,500 (not included in the total expenses). I bought 10 shirts, all sorts of cashew delicacies, trinklets, bracelets, etc. I'm a sucker for pasalubong. Typical turista mode always on when it comes to pasalubong shopping.

Up Next: What's there to see in Puerto Princesa? Is the PP Underground River worth all the hype? Puerto Princesa or Coron?

If you have questions about my Puerto Princessa itinerary, just ask away :)

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